In a racket game such as tennis, there are several flaws that are common among the players. One major flaw occurs during a swing such as a forehand, backhand, volley and serve.
For a forehand stroke, the wrist should be cocked or laid-back (extended) in a position called a hitting structure. For the most efficient swing and consistency, the hitting structure should be maintained from the forward swing throughout the contact position. However, beginner players make two common mistakes. One is that they keep the racket in a nearly straight line with the arm in an improper hitting structure. While they think they are hitting the ball harder by “arming” the ball, such a swing actually causes a substantial loss in power, not to mention the possibility of inducing tennis elbow due to the excessive stress placed on the extensor tendon connected to the humerus bone. Even if the beginner players do have the correct hitting structure, they incorrectly snap their wrist forward near the point of impact. In technical terms, the wrist goes to flexion, which causes inconsistency in the ball direction. A similar problem exists for a backhand.
In a volley stroke, the recommended hitting structure is to maintain a sharp angle between the racket and the arm (sometimes called an “L”) from the forward swing to impact whenever possible. However, the beginner players “break” their wrist during the forward swing, which causes the racket to move away from the “L” to more of an “I” shape, i.e., the racket being in line with the arm. Such wrist movement causes a loss of consistency.
In serves, professional players hold their racket such that it forms an angle of 15-50 degrees at the point of impact with a tennis ball to provide maximum racket speed from pronating the hand. Pronation means a combination of a forearm roll and internal shoulder rotation. By contrast, average players hold their racket too vertically and the racket-forearm angle is close to 0 at the point of impact. This reduces the racket head speed greatly, not to mention the likely injury to their shoulder.
A number of different training aids have been presented in the prior art to attempt to correct some of these problems. However, there are a number of deficiencies with these devices. Many are difficult and uncomfortable to wear. Others are unnecessarily complicated to adjust for different strokes.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a racket swing training device that is simple to use and adjust for working on different swing strokes.